Interior aircraft led light unit and method of calibrating an interior aircraft led light unit

Abstract

An interior aircraft LED light unit includes at least one LED and a lens cover arranged over the at least one LED, the lens cover having a proximal side facing towards the at least one LED and a distal side forming an outside portion of the interior aircraft LED light unit, with the lens cover being made from a lens cover material exhibiting material-specific light transfer properties. The lens cover comprises a pattern of dots on the distal side, with each of the pattern of dots locally altering the material-specific light transfer properties of the lens cover.

1 . An interior aircraft LED light unit, comprising:
 at least one LED, and   a lens cover arranged over the at least one LED, the lens cover having a proximal side facing towards the at least one LED and a distal side ( 12   b ) forming an outside portion of the interior aircraft LED light unit, with the lens cover being made from a lens cover material exhibiting material-specific light transfer properties, wherein the lens cover comprises a patterns of dots on the distal side,   wherein the pattern of dots locally alter the material-specific light transfer properties of the lens cover.   
     
     
         2 . The interior aircraft LED light unit according to  claim 1 , wherein the pattern of dots are printed onto the distal side of the lens cover, in particular printed via an inkjet printer. 
     
     
         3 . The interior aircraft LED light unit according to  claim 1 , wherein the pattern of dots are a pattern of semi-transparent or non-transparent dots. 
     
     
         4 . The interior aircraft LED light unit according to  claim 1 , wherein the pattern of dots are white dots, when seen from outside of the interior aircraft LED light unit. 
     
     
         5 . The interior aircraft LED light unit according to  claim 1 , wherein the pattern of dots are colored dots altering a color of the light passing through the pattern of dots. 
     
     
         6 . The interior aircraft LED light unit according to  claim 1 , wherein the pattern of dots are lasered into the distal side of the lens cover. 
     
     
         7 . The interior aircraft LED light unit according to  claim 1 , wherein the pattern of dots are distributed in a regular pattern. 
     
     
         8 . The interior aircraft LED light unit according to  claim 1 , wherein the pattern of dots is distributed in a random pattern, with the random pattern resulting from a uniform probability distribution. 
     
     
         9 . The interior aircraft LED light unit according to  claim 1 , wherein the pattern of dots includes a plurality of patterns and each of the patterns has a size of less than 3 mm. 
     
     
         10 . The interior aircraft LED light unit according to  claim 1 , wherein the pattern of dots covers between 10% and 40% of the distal side of the lens cover. 
     
     
         11 . The interior aircraft LED light unit according to  claim 10 , wherein the pattern of dots covers between 15% and 30% of the distal side of the lens cover. 
     
     
         12 . The interior aircraft LED light unit according to  claim 1 , further comprising at least one of: a brightness filter, a color filter; and a combined brightness and color filter, arranged between the at least one LED and the lens cover. 
     
     
         13 . Interior aircraft LED light unit according to  claim 1 , configured as one of: an exit sign light unit; a cabin illumination light unit; and a reading light unit. 
     
     
         14 . An aircraft comprising at least one interior aircraft LED light unit according to  claim 1 , arranged on an inside of the aircraft. 
     
     
         15 . A method of calibrating an interior aircraft LED light unit having at least one LED and a lens cover arranged over the at least one LED, the lens cover having a proximal side facing towards the at least one LED and a distal side forming an outside portion of the interior aircraft LED light unit, with the lens cover being made from a lens cover material exhibiting material-specific light transfer properties, the method comprising the steps of:
 measuring an initial lighting performance of the interior aircraft LED light unit, and   depending on said step of measuring the initial lighting performance, providing the distal side of the lens cover with a pattern of dots that locally alters the material-specific light transfer properties of the lens cover.   
     
     
         16 . The method according to  claim 15 , wherein the step of providing the distal side of the lens cover with the pattern of dots comprises:
 determining a deviation of the initial lighting performance from a desired lighting performance, and   selecting a density of the pattern of dots to compensate for the deviation.